Tchaikovsky’s Wife

The turbulent marriage of Antonina Milioukova (Alyona Mikhailova) and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Odin Biron) lasted only three months. For Antonina, a daughter of Russian nobility, it was an all-consuming love that would endure for life. Tchaikovsky, already a celebrated composer, agreed to the marriage to assuage ongoing rumours about his sexuality—a mistake that plunged him into depression. Consumed by her feelings for him, Antonina refuses to consider a divorce. Humiliated, disgraced, and discarded, she is slowly driven to madness.

Exiled Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov elegantly draws a portrait of self-destructive and obsessive love amidst the cold hand of patriarchy. With an extraordinary lead performance from Miliukova, ‘Tchaikovsky’s Wife’ is a powerful depiction of delusion and loneliness.